EVENTS

Bologna ROCK Hackathon 2018

Eco-entrepreneurship, cities and sustainable business innovation for a green & inclusive Bologna

From 26th May 2018 to 27th May 2018

Do you want to participate in a 2 day co-creation marathon to make Bologna more sustainable, resilient and collaborative?

What’s Bologna ROCK Hackathon 2018 – #ROCKHackathon18 #Bologna?

Within the Green Office, the new University hub for sustainability, the University of Bologna (UNIBO), Urban Center Bologna and the Municipality of Bologna (COBO – Environmental Office), in partnership with Ecopreneurs for the Climate (*), are co-organizing the Bologna ROCK Hackathon 2018 (hashtags#ROCKHackathon18 #Bologna), to be held on May 26-27 in Bologna (Italy).

It is a 2-day co-creation marathon addressed at university students, young professionals and entrepreneurs, and aimed at boosting eco-entrepreneurship, sustainable business innovation, and collaborative networks, all key levers for effective and inclusive solutions to the city’s environmental challenges, including climate change.

The hackathon is part of the ROCK project, a Horizon 2020 funded project, and also of the Young Ecopreneurs Climathons 2018 initiative (#YoungEcoClimathons18), encompassing green hackathons in many cities around the world, happening throughout the spring and autumn, and concluding at the 2018 Global Week of Ecopreneurs and Cities for the Climate (#EcoCities4Climate18) on November 5-11, and at the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice (Poland) on December 3-14.

(*) Ecopreneurs for the Climate (ECO4CLIM) is a nonprofit whose mission is to boost the creation and scale up the impact of cooperative, sound and sustainable businesses that tackle climate change and inequality, thus contributing to implementing the Paris Agreement and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Who can participate?

Everyone who wants to be involved in tackling the city’s main environmental challenges, like climate change, by building sustainable & inclusive business solutions. Particularly:

Students from universities or business schools

Young professionals seeking employment in the sustainability/climate innovation realm

Young ecopreneurs seeking ideas, opportunities and/or teammates

Citizens interested in transforming their city into a resilient urban system

Attend and participate in the Hackathon on 26-27 May (two full days), in Bologna.

Program

The Hackathon will last 2 full days (May 26-27), structured around 4 working sessions:

May 26 – morning: inspiring talks from impact ecopreneurs, participants will be split into teams of 4-6 members, as diverse as possible with the goal to identificate and frame of local climate challenges and solution design (I – objectives, customers, partners and stakeholders);

May 26 – afternoon: Expert facilitators will guide the methodological work aided by the “Green Business Canvas” tool or similar frameworks. (II – value proposition, business model, communication strategy and stakeholder engagement);

May 27 – morning: Professional mentors (collaborators and business partners) will share their point of view with the teams, all throughout the process, in order to improve the projects (III- prototype testing, feedback gathering and enhancement);

May 27 – afternoon: In the final session, the teams will present their projects in front of the audience and the jury (main collaborators and business partners), which will provide feedback and award the prizes (IV- rehearsals, pitches to the jury, awards ceremony and open networking).

After the hackathon, the resulting projects will be developed and honed through various incubation programs managed by the co-organizers (UNIBO, UCB and COBO), using the eco-entrepreneurship methodology that Ecopreneurs for the Climate will train local managers on.

On top of it all, awardees will be offered the chance to pitch their incubated projects at ROCK’s match-making event in Bologna later in the year, and potentially (to be confimed)at the 2018 Global Week of Ecopreneurs and Cities for the Climate #EcoCities4Climate18, and (to be confirmed too) at the 2018 UN Climate Change Conference (COP24) in Katowice (Poland) on December 3-14.

Why become a partner?

The #ROCKHackathon2018 #Bologna aims to train students and young professionals, and put them in contact with companies and organizations in search of talent within the green economy and sustainable innovation domains. All throughout the process, business partners can support (role of mentors) and evaluate (role of jury) participants, in order to know first-hand their professional skills and attitudes in practice, such as teamwork, leadership, creativity, problem-solving ability, etc.